ST. PAUL, MINN. — Ryan Cos. has broken ground on the redevelopment of a 122-acre former Ford plant in St. Paul’s Highland Park neighborhood. Named Highland Bridge, the project has a focus on residential, featuring seniors housing, market-rate multifamily housing and 760 units of affordable housing, as well as for-sale row homes. In addition to the project’s 3,800 housing units, Highland Bridge is slated to include 150,000 square feet of retail space, 265,000 square feet of office space and 50,000 square feet of civic or institutional spaces. More than 55 acres of public space will include four new parks, biking and walking paths and two little league fields. Ryan Cos. completed the purchase of the former Ford plant in December 2019. Ford began production of the Model T at the site in 1925, but the plant closed in 2011. Total project costs for the redevelopment were not disclosed. An estimated 14,500 construction jobs will be created for the project. Once complete, an estimated 1,000 employees will be employed at the site. “We’ve paid particular attention to what makes Highland Park special, and our goal is to uphold those unique qualities, to expand upon them, and to create a place where …
Mixed-Use
ALLEN, TEXAS — Locally based developer JaRyCo has partnered with the Johnson family to develop its farmland at the southeast corner of the Sam Rayburn Tollway and Alma Drive in Allen, located northeast of Dallas, into a 135-acre mixed-use destination. Current plans for the development, which will be branded The Farm at Allen, call for 1.6 million square feet of office space, 142,000 square feet of retail space, a 150-room hotel, 60,000 square feet of restaurant space and 2,400 urban residential units, including townhomes. Additional features include a 2.5-acre lake with boardwalk restaurants, two miles of hiking and biking trails, a 16-acre greenbelt along Watters Creek and four additional park areas. Infrastructure work at the site is scheduled to begin in late 2020. Omniplan is the project architect, and TBG is the landscape architect. Dynamic Engineering is the civil engineer.
DETROIT — Two construction cranes now occupy the site that eventually will be home to the highly anticipated Hudson Tower project in downtown Detroit. The cranes signal that vertical construction can begin and Bedrock is able to bring the project into the next phase of development. Plans call for a 680-foot-tall mixed-use tower that will include 1.3 million square feet of retail, office, hotel, residential and public space. Bedrock, the real estate arm of billionaire businessman Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans, initially broke ground on the project in December 2017. It is now slated for completion in 2024. Southfield-based Barton Malow Co. is the general contractor. The project is a redevelopment of the former J.L. Hudson department store, which closed in 1984 and was imploded in 1998.
FISHERS, IND. — Hanley Investment Group Real Estate Advisors has negotiated the sale of the Bonn Building in Fishers within suburban Indianapolis. Although the sales price was undisclosed, the transaction marks the third for Hanley in the state of Indiana in the last five months for a total consideration of $12.2 million. Dylan Mallory and Corey Olson of Hanley represented the Toledo-based seller and developer, Republic Development. A Bloomington, Ind.-based private investor purchased the asset. Built in 2007, the Bonn Building sits on 2.3 acres at E. 131st St. within Saxony, a 3.5 million-square-foot office and industrial development. The Bonn Building was 92 percent leased at the time of sale to a mix of retail, food service, healthcare and office tenants.
Charlotte City Council Gives $600M Mixed-Use Project in Uptown District First Approval to Move Forward
by John Nelson
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Seventh and Tryon, a planned $600 million mixed-use project in Charlotte’s Uptown district, has cleared a critical hurdle with the Charlotte City Council. The proposed development will include a 160,000-square-foot mixed-use building, 450,000-square-foot office tower, market-rate and affordable multifamily units, retail space and below- and above-ground parking. At a virtual meeting yesterday, the council unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that allows Marcus Jones, city manager of Charlotte, to negotiate and execute with the Virginia-based developer, Metropolitan Partnership Ltd., on behalf of the city and the landowners of the 3.1-acre site in Uptown. The landowners include Bank of America, City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Atlanta-based DaVinci Development Collaborative is the development manager on behalf of the landowners. “North Tryon needs a facelift, I believe this project moves us in that direction,” said councilmember Malcolm Graham, representative of Charlotte’s District 2, during the proceedings. The council also moved to allow the use of city funds to be negotiated for the project to move forward. The MOU includes the sale of the land from the four landowners to Metropolitan Partnership for a price of $21.5 million. The key terms of the MOU also include …
AUBURN HILLS, MICH. — The final phase of demolition for The Palace of Auburn Hills, the former home of the Detroit Pistons basketball team, took place over the weekend. The more than 20,000-seat venue first opened in 1988. The Pistons played at the arena from 1988 until 2017. The team won all three of its titles at the arena, including NBA championships in 1989, 1990 and 2004. The Pistons now play in downtown Detroit at Little Caesars Arena. Schostak Brothers & Co., a development company based in Livonia, Mich., purchased part of The Palace in a joint venture, according to local media reports. Plans call for a mixed-use development on the site. Watch the demolition video here.
Northwood Office is Adapting and Expanding 535-Acre Ballantyne Office Campus for a Post-COVID-19 World
by John Nelson
As one of the largest owners and operators of office space in the Charlotte market, Northwood Office is focusing on what office users want — safety, quality, productivity, flexibility and a sense of community. The firm’s largest asset is Ballantyne, a 535-acre campus featuring 4.4 million square feet of Class A office space situated in the heart of a 2,000-acre community. Ballantyne is home to 17,000 employees and 300 companies. While the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the landscape for office space, Ballantyne is well-positioned to deliver what employers need in the current environment. “The benefit of working close to home is more appealing than ever, and Ballantyne’s location near the Carolinas border and public transportation options make it accessible for everyone,” says John Barton, president of Northwood Office. “However, Ballantyne’s hallmark is its abundant open space. Always our differentiator, its value takes on a whole new level in a post-pandemic world.” Northwood Office’s priority is the safety and well-being of its customers and team members while also maintaining its buildings at the highest level. The company assembled a task force to prepare and adapt for a phased re-entry to office buildings. New operational procedures underway include ample signage instituting social …
CAYCE, S.C. — The Simpson Organization Inc. plans to develop a $65 million mixed-use project at the intersection of Interstate 77 and 12th Street in Cayce. The Atlanta-based developer acquired 36 acres of Dominion Energy’s 260-acre Otarre Pointe development for the project, which is slated to include apartments, restaurants, retail space, a hotel, office space and an entertainment area. ODA Architecture is the designer, Paris Projects is the general contractor and EB Development will handle leasing and marketing. Simpson Organization expects to break ground on Phase I in late 2021. The property is located seven miles south of downtown Columbia.
EJF Capital, Holland Partner Group Plan Block 10 Mixed-Use Project in Downtown Vancouver
by Amy Works
VANCOUVER, WASH. — EJF Capital and Holland Partner Group (HPG) are developing Block 10, a mixed-use property located in downtown Vancouver. Situated on a one-acre opportunity zone, the project will feature 110 apartments, 79,000 gross square feet of office space on top of a podium deck with roughly 10,100 square feet of retail space and 113 parking spaces. Twenty percent of the multifamily units will be set aside as workforce housing. Building amenities, which will be shared between office users and residents, will include a fitness center, co-working space, bike room and amenity deck on the third level. Holland Construction, HGP’s construction division, expects to break ground this month, with completion slated for spring 2022. Bank of the West is providing construction financing for the development.
Brookfield Properties Files Plans to Redevelop Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall as Mixed-Use Destination
by Alex Tostado
ATLANTA — Brookfield Properties Retail Group has submitted initial plans for the redevelopment of the eastern portion of Cumberland Mall, a 1 million-square-foot regional mall in northern Atlanta’s Cumberland-Galleria submarket. Cobb County submitted the proposal on behalf of the Chicago-based developer to the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) to review as a Development of Regional Impact (DRI), which is a distinction for projects that have outsized impact on civic functions such as schools and traffic. Brookfield hopes to reshape the mall into a town center with 445,000 square feet of office space, 312 multifamily residences, 31,200 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 10 bus bays. Additionally, What Now Atlanta reported that Cobb County recently issued permits for a new Round 1 Bowling & Amusement attraction to begin construction for a new 80,000-square-foot venue at the former Sears, which closed in 2018. The initial action that Brookfield is proposing for Cumberland Mall is for the 14-acre site at 2940 Cobb Parkway to be rezoned as mixed-use. According to the filing with the GRTA, the developer hopes to complete the phased redevelopment in 2025. The Cumberland-Galleria submarket has been transformed in the past four years with the addition of the …